Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

I bought both my E6400 and a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB (ST9320421AS) off ebay.

I changed the drive in my E6400 from the stock 80G/5400 to this one immediately. There's a lot of clicking involved; the laptop is very silent otherwise (I have just installed RMClock for undervolting but haven't changed any settings).

Can someone advise me on what to do regarding this irritating clicking noise? I have used the laptop for about 6 hours now.

Thanks!

 

The box should contain the following disks:
- Power DVD DX
- Roxio
- Dell backup disk drivers (in case you don't have internet or want access the original driver)
- Vista Disk of the edition of your system. (64-bit if you want to use your 4GB of RAM)

This is not normal.If you pull put the optical drive (like remove it from the system), does that help? (I know it sound strange but it's for diagnosing). Perhaps you did not enable smooth scrolling in Firefox option... does it do that on Google search result page (it might just the site is badly design or use several Flash and/or Java crap)?
If nothing, contact Dell tech support (or via chat) to see what is the problem... On some systems, in computer enthousiast forums, some people claim lag when using Vista/XP/2000 32-bit with 4GB of RAM... However, some people here do have this setup (Vista or XP 32-bit with 4GB) and they don't complain.. so my guess there is no issue.. or they don't see it.
It could also be the after affect of you upgrading XP to Vista.... better to do a clean install of Vista... I don't know.. I never been fan of a upgrade procedure.

This is configurable with the Dell option (Win key than type: "mouse" (without the quotes) [best way to start app real fast ], then hit Enter, click on the touch pad icon)

 

Yeah it's missing the last two! I'm not sure if I need 64-bit, I know it is more likely to have driver issues and I can't think of anything I'd do that would really require the extra gig of ram (task manager seems to tell me that I have 3+gb ram even if not the full four). I've heard good things about dell's refurb customer service so hopefully this should be fixed with a phone call.

Refurb arrived with vista business installed already - so this wasn't an "upgrade." The XP I'm comparing it to is my two and half year old inspiron sitting next to me.

I took out the optical drive (entirely) and that didn't seem to do anything.

I had already enabled smooth scrolling in both ie and firefox to test out the difference - didn't seem to do anything either. I don't have enough files/folders to do a comparable test in windows, but overall interaction with the os seems to be very fast (I'd hope so with the 7200rpm hd, centrino 2, etc!). Only lag is opening windows from a minimized state (which might be the part of the dwm.exe or just something about vista that I'm not used to).

Something just doesn't feel right in general about my interaction with the system, which is strange because it's really fast at times and then has those weird lags. Maybe a clean install of 32bit is what I need or maybe 64... As I understand it if you have the license to one you technically have the license to both right?

I'd already messed with the settings once, but you inspired me to do it again (also thanks for that Vista tip, I'm looking forward to learning how to tweak and find fun new shortcuts in a new os) I maxed out touch sensitivity (not sure why I didn't do it before) and it already feels a lot better. Only issue is with the scroll, it lags a little (kind of like the arrow keys) but that's not my main issue: I wish that I could scroll in one direction and have it keep going until I stop it (that's what my synaptics trackpad does on the old system I keep referring to). Making the scrolling speed faster doesn't seem to fix this either.

Is there a setting in there that will let me do it that I'm missing somehow? It's frustrating not being able to speedily (and smoothly) scroll through a blog/thread/e-mail etc. Especially in a higher resolution...

Regardless, thanks for responding and helping me!

quick edit: using an optical mouse is a little revealing: when using the scroll wheel I can move quickly, though it's choppy because it's a wheel - but when I click on it and scroll everything moves smoothly. Maybe the issue is that my arrow keys aren't as responsive as I'd like them to be? I didn't realize that was something that differed across systems though. I don't want to have to use the mouse, so this is a null point as a fix, but it does highlight the fact that problem might be more in the trackpad and arrow keys than in the os. makes me much happier about the system, buzz coming back.

 

You are confusing XP 64-bit
If you don't have any peripherals that are older than 2006, then Vista 64-bit will run perfectly (Vista 64-bit support XP 64-bit drivers, if you ever encounter such situation which is most unlikely). As for desktop applications, unless you have a specialized business class software which you'll need to see with the people responsible, Vista 32/64 should have no problems.

Sure you can, applications gets fancier, more feature rich, and less optimized, therefor require more RAM (heck look at Adobe software, Firefox, Opera, Winamp, IE, All OS's as example.) More RAM is always best. Another problem, is that your RAM is fully powered, all the time... so you actually power the missing RAM segment for nothing.. at least if you had the potential to use it, it would be more interesting. On this thread, I talk more about the advantages of Vista/Win7 64-bit. In quick short, increase battery life when execute certain tasks.. like 64-bit codecs (of course depends on the video), having the whole OS (which is big) in 64-bit which offer a little more responsiveness, and more. Also.. you PAID a 64-bit CPU and 4GB of RAm.. why not use it. Oh, another plus side, is that you can disable page file and win another few minutes. All these little minutes increases, and you can probaly (depending on what you do) get an extra 30min. Check what I said for a little more details.

Hmmm... I really don't have this. Oh, if your system set to "high performance"? It could also be the GPU that powers up. I know that if my lappy is idle for some time, teh GPU goes in low-speed and when you wake it up with flip 3D or something, you can see it's a little choppy but soon after it's smooth. Whereas your old Intel GPU was probably always power-up as Aero was a little too much for it. That might explain the delay that you are facing. This is just the GPU. that's kinda the issue when getting the 'powerful for laptop' GPU. Although this video card is the low-end of the these 'powerful' video card... it's still based on the same chip and technologies. Overclocking the GPU might help. But I don't recommend it other than using profile based layout with Nvidia Performance Tweak add-on (used to be called nTune). As not only you probably going to lose battery life, but also increase temperature of the machine. I do it but only for games to get a steady smooth play in those special areas which are extra demanding in the game (as it's a quadro.. not a geforce, despite using geforce drivers... some effects like water, light, fur, is kinda hard for this GPU (Hesse, classified as the equivalent as a Geforce 9300, but in reality can perform more polygons (which is not really helpful in all games)

However, all this GPOU talk should not affect the scrolling (which uses the CPU). Try with IE, and see if you get any lag. It might be a Firefox add-on that causes fault (my guess), or a specific version of a plug-in.

Errr... LEGALLY speaking, no. OEM version of teh OS is only either 32 or 64-nit. Retail you are free to choose. But in reality Microsoft doesn't know, and I am sure they don't really care (as it still activates). I would suggest to call Dell and insist (like say something about the RAM) on Vista 64-bit instead of getting the 32-bit, and then you use your own (or friend) Vista 64-bit disk. Because the product key under your laptop is de-activated (require you to call Microsoft to activate it, and every time you re-install Vista) and the Vista from Dell has a pre-entered key and pre-activated Vista. Nothing critical on both methods.. just that it's easier having the Dell disk.

Yea, there is a lot more stuff you can do. It's preaty cool stuff. Because of them I can switch back to XP frankly

If you mean it takes a larger movement to launch the cursor to move (or scroll) than I have that also. I THINK it's made on purpose so that the mouse doesn't moce when you accidentally touch the trackpad.

I don't know exactly what you are talking about as this is my first laptop. But you can continuously scroll with it. You scroll normally, when reached at edge, without lifing your finger, you perform a circle with your finger.. While your circle your finger, you scroll. If you directly switch direction of the circle without a large pause, it will scroll at the inverse direction. This works for up/down, and left/right scroll. If this does not work, then the option is disabled in the Dell mouse option panel.

I have no delay/lag scrolling this website with keyboard keys. However, if it jumps a little really fast but NOT constantly.. then that is just firefox rendering the page. I already have this with my gaming desktop PC [AMD Athlon X2 4400+ Socket 939 not to be confused with the crappy AM2 version of my CPU, mine is equivalent to a 1.8-2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo), Nforce 4 32XSLI (specs are close to the Nforce 5), Geforce GTX 260, 3GB of RAM DDR1 450Mhz 3-3-3-6, Western Digital 256GB 7200RPM 16MB of L2 cache. Which can play any games (other than Crysis) at MAX settings at 1600x1200x32 @ 85Hz with vSync]

Hope this helps.

 

If you want I can make you an application that makes your computer speakers buzz.. liek this it will never go away! Aren't I a genius!

 

The Dell download site has firmware upgrades for some of the Seagate HDDs. This might fix the noise problem.

Vista spends its first few days doing a lot of house-keeping so it may be that.

You can also look at the processes page in Task Manager to see if the CPU utilisation is high and then see which processes are hitting the CPU. Sometimes a buggy program can get stuck in a loop.

Update to the latest versions of drivers and software and uninstall the Dell Connection Manager unless you need it.

John

 

Random problem I just noticed on my E6400... when I come out of standby, the screen automatically goes to the highest brightness setting and I have to toggle it through ALS before my original settings are applied. BIOS A12. Latest driver. Windows XP SP3. Anyone else have had the same issue or a fix? John?

 

I haven't seen this problem. I have the ALS disabled.

Check out the Display Brightness option in the BIOS.

John

 

do you have a source for that statement? Both Dell and M$ have independently confirmed that ANY copy of vista is supposed to give you access to both. there are a number of very stupid dell technicians/support people that claim otherwise, but if you speak to the right person at dell, they will tell you correctly. and microsoft just gets annoyed when it hears dell isnt providing this, and says i should absolutely have it.

fortunately, there is a VERY easy fix to your problem. Install the latest firmware for the harddrive. Any release before DE16 (i think) has the clicking problem, and those after do not.

 

go into the keyboard settings and change the repeat rate or delay, and click apply. there seems to be a bug (at least when I am using win7, though i forget if it existed in vista) that it will revert back to stock sensitivity settings, so even if it shows the correct settings in the panel, it is wrong. modifying them and reapplying gives you back the quick response with the arrow keys.